Stumble
by gethsemane342
Summary: When the girl from District 4 has no one to catch her, one stumble can cause her entire world to fall apart.


**Disclaimer: I do not own _The Hunger Games_**

**Rated for: implied violence and death.**

Stumble

A look behind, to see how far away the Tracker-jackers are.

One stings her cheek.

She keeps running. Slower than before.

* * *

_It's her first day on the boats in District 4. She leans over to cast the line wider. The water glistens below._

_A moment of teetering._

_Her head rushes towards the water. _

_It's too far down._

_Strong arms grab her around the stomach and haul her backwards. A man laughs. He puts her back on deck, telling her to be more careful next time._

* * *

The footsteps are ahead of her. She hears a scream. She still doesn't look.

She has to reach the lake. If she gets into the water, the tracker-jackers will leave her alone. That's all she has to do.

Another one flies by her arm. One foot falters.

The other is placed down.

* * *

_Her school reports are terrible. She might have a talent for bringing in the fish but she can't do her work. She handed in her report to her parents and then ran to hide._

_She's stupid._

_That's what they call her in school. It makes her cry. _

_Her mother finds her in her room. She holds her and tells her that they can sit together in the evenings and go over anything she finds hard. Some people find studying hard. That's all. _

_It takes a few seconds but Zita smiles._

* * *

She swings her arm at the next one. Peeta overtakes her.

She falls.

Almost.

Her run becomes a pain-filled, head-long stumble.

* * *

_She knows how to fight. Every time someone calls her stupid, she just attacks them. She's been sent out of school more times than anyone in her class. She's nearly gotten a whipping on the boats._

_Everything is going wrong. She can feel it._

_But she doesn't know how to stop herself from lashing out._

_One time, she just runs back home. Her little brother is there. He asks her why she's home. She explains._

_He holds one of her hands and smiles at her. She feels her anger melt away._

"_Hitting people's bad. So you just gotta stop."_

"_Just like that?" she asks with a wry smile._

"_Yeah." He keeps smiling. "Just be happy instead."_

* * *

Colours swirl around her. It hurts to breathe. Cato's yells seem far away.

There's a misstep.

She flings her arms out for balance.

* * *

_The tackle hits her hard._

_And she's falling. _

_Falling headfirst into darkness._

_With no way to get back._

_She opens her eyes to find Quintus sitting next to her, holding her hand. _

_His lips land on hers and she lies back down._

_For once, she doesn't want to get up._

* * *

_She doesn't tell Quintus she's going to volunteer. She just does it. She has to, to prove she's more than a stupid, mindless thug._

_He was holding her._

_She doesn't note his failure to catch her as she walks from his open, shocked hands._

_She didn't fall in the first place_.

* * *

She feels her foot flying through the air.

Another sting. That makes five.

But she doesn't know how many are needed to kill you. So she can still hope to get back up.

* * *

_She barely knows her district partner. But he watches her. She ignores him. She's too focussed on not messing up._

_They're training. She runs with her axe, the only weapon she really knows how to use, when her foot slips._

_The blade glints in the dull light of the basement._

_She feels all eyes upon her._

_The landing is going to be painful._

_An arm snakes around her abdomen, almost winding her, and places her back on two feet. Her axe is handed back to her. _

_She asks him why he helped her. He shrugs and says that her volunteering saved his sister. She stuck her arm up and saved her. He put his arm out to catch her._

_He walks away, leaving her even more confused than before._

* * *

She crashes. Hard.

For a moment, her hands twitch as though she'll force herself back up. Her gaze lifts just enough to see Cato, Clove, Marvel and Peeta continue to run away from her as hallucinations swirl around her.

She screams as tracker-jackers cover her.

Darkness sets in. She opens her eyes.

And continues to fall.

_**Fin**_


End file.
